GOLD, DUST, OR GOLD DUST? RELIGION IN THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PREMCHAND Author(s): Arvind Sharma Source: Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 21, No. 2, ESSAYS ON PREMCHAND (Summer, Fall 1986), pp. 112-122 Published by: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40874091 Accessed: 03-11-2019 20:36 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of South Asian Literature This content downloaded from 130.56.64.29 on Sun, 03 Nov 2019 20:36:56 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Arvind Sharma GOLD, DUST, OR GOLD DUST? RELIGION IN THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PREMCHAND Was Premohand really an athiest? Premchand is regarded as one of the makers of modern Hindi literature and is known to his admirers as the 'king of novelists.1' The purpose of this paper is to examine the place of religion in his life and work. In order to carry out such an examination, however, some preliminary observations are necessary. First of all, the word 'religion' itself will need to be broadly interpre- ted in order to include those modern manifestations of religiosity which are more usually referred to as surrogates for religion, such as Marxism, humanism, nationalism, psychoanalysis, etc., apart from what are traditionally regarded as the religious traditions of mankind, such as Hinduism, etc. To confine religion to its narrower sense in this case would be to narrow the lens to the point where it loses focus. For it must be remembered that the active phase of Premchand's life coincided with the rise of nationalism in India and with the appearance of other 'isms' as religious options on the Indian scene. 3 Second, one must bear in mind that the pattern of ultimate concern that Premchand may have held was not like a fixed picture in a set frame, but rather more like luminous and continuous, but changing, images on a screen. Thus the dynamic element in the situation needs to be recognized. Finally, it must be realized that though religious elements are to be found in his life and works, Premchand was not a man of religion as such. This last point needs to be clearly recognized, because many literary figures of India, the medieval poets, for instance, were also saints, and the life of even such a modern literary figure as Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) possessed a pro- nounced mystical, if not religious, dimension. The biographers of Premchand have not overlooked this point in comparing the two. P. C. Gupta, for example, has suggested that Premchand "lacked the spiritual insight of Tagore into the past cultural heritage of India, but he seems to be much more in tune with modern concepts derived from a scientific and progressive world-outlook," and that "his novels have more political colouring than either the novels of Sarat Chandra [Chatterji] or Tagore."4 On the question of Premchand's closeness to the medieval poet-saints, which is a distinguishing feature of Tagore in some ways,5 it has been suggested that Premchand's work stands ... in marked contrast to that of Tagore or Sarat Chandra Chatterji . [for] he touches a region of life hitherto ignored by the Indian masters with the exception of the me- dieval saint-poets. He speaks of the Indian peasant with deep understanding and sympathy, of his poverty and suffer- ings, his superstitions and weaknesses and his dreams of a better life.6 While it may be true that, when compared to his Bengali counterparts, Premchand focuses as much on the rural as on the emerging urban milieu in India, his approach to the issues which his characters face is not religious. If anything, his approach is rather the contrary. Moreover, Premchand does not admit of any personal experiences of a mystical nature. He begins an 112 - This content downloaded from 130.56.64.29 on Sun, 03 Nov 2019 20:36:56 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms autobiographical sketch with the mystically disarming metaphor wherein he admits to feeling the depths of despair but not to any kind of peak ex- periences: "My Hfe 1s a level plain. There are pits here and there but no cliffs, mountains, jungles, deep ravines or desert wastes. Those good people who have a taste for mountaineering will be disappointed here."7 That religion forms a part of his Hfe and work, and that his life and work are not a part of religion 1s further confirmed by the consideration of the following 11st of his favorite themes drawn up by one of his biographers, Prakash Chandra Gupta: 1. Love of ornaments and finery; the trouble and distress this brings. 2. The peasant's tale of woe and suffering. 3. Communal tensions, orthodoxy, superstition and blind prejudices. 4. Dowry and the marriage system. 5. The plight of the Hindu widow. 6. The stepmother. 7. Social movements and national upsurge. 8. Historical Interest: mediaeval history and recent In- dian history. 9. Supernatural Interests and Intrusions. 10. Themes of patriotic fervour. 11. Games like Kabaddi and gilli-danda [sic]. 12. Satire and exposure of pretence and hypocrisy. 13. Themes of social Injustice. 14. Transformation of character under the Impact of social reality. Stories of characters.** But to say that Premchand was not a 'religious' man or writer does not mean that religion played no role In his life or writings. Premchand was a Hindu, a kãyasth by birth.9 Hence, Hinduism often fig- ures Into his works. But Premchand was a progressive and a rationalist Insofar as Hinduism was concerned. He attacked obscurantism. He was also temperamen- tally secular rather than communal and once remarked: "My way of living and my culture are, In fact, a blend of the Hindu and the Muslim. The Impact of Mus- lim culture on me Is deeper than that of the Hindu; I learnt Persian and Urdu from a maulvi long before I started reading and writing Hindi." He did not believe In the cardinal Hindu doctrine of rebirth and attacked exploitation in the name of religion.11 In his first novel, Asrãr-e-m 'abid (Mysteries of the Places of Worship), the pandas, serving priests at a temple or pilgrimage site, are shown in a bad light, and widow remarriage is espoused in the next novel, Prem (Love).12 Premchand himself married a child-widow (though it was a second marriage for him as well.L and the pernicious influence of the dowry system is portrayed in Ninnala. 13 Thus Premchand was a reformist in his attitude to Hindu social customs. He also became a rationalist in the sense that he subsequently discarded the supernatural ism of his early stories such as "Moth" (The Sorcerer's Spell) and "Nãg püja" (Snake Worship), etc., and the early novel Kãyãkalp (Metamorphosis).14 However, Premchand was first and foremost a writer rather than a reformist, and this became clearer as his work matured. As his translator David Rubin has pointed out: Caste snobbery- though it is more than snobbery, being a function of religion; the yearning for sons (a desire that overwhelms all others) to carry on the family and perform the rituals; the terror at the possibility of disgrace or loss of face; the shame of widowhood; the proverbial con- servatism-and cunning- of the peasant: these are some of the recurring strands in the fabric of his portrayal of the - 113 - This content downloaded from 130.56.64.29 on Sun, 03 Nov 2019 20:36:56 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms village. In the early stories there 1s a tendency to edi- torialize, even sermonize, and to be redundant, which de- creases gradually; the best stories of the late twenties and thirties are free of It entirely.15 The cow In the Ufe and work of Premchand 1s an Interesting Index of his relation to traditional Hinduism. When he was in Gorakhpur, Premchand clashed with the British collector. His cow was found grazing In the collector's com- pound, and the collector threatened to shoot It. The point to note here Is that It was not the sacredness of the cow which caused the row; rather, "Prem Chand was really standing up for national self-respect against the Insolence and arrogance of foreign rulers." His most famous and last complete novel, Godãn (The Gift of a Cow), again serves to Illustrate the same point. Hori, the hero of the novel, has one "supreme ambition": "to have a cow at his door- step."17 He gets one, but 1t is poisoned. Finally, when Hor1 is himself dy- ing, he 1s urged to give a cow away in order to secure salvation by the moneylender, who "comes again in the shape of the heartless Brahmin, with all the sanction and authority of religion and custom behind him."18 The poignant end is best described by the author's own words: The news [of Hori's dying] had swept through the vil- lage like a great wind and everyone had assembled.